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Mentally Ill Prisoners

A photo collage displays a jail, a brick building surrounded by wire fences, men in jail uniforms holding a burning fabric by a broken window, a demolition excavator, a badge that reads “City of St. Louis Division of Corrections” and a text clipping.
St. Louis April 21
St. Louis Jail Is a ‘Potential Powder Keg’
A facility built for progress reflects ‘decades of neglect’ and the city’s deepest struggles, from mental illness to systemic dysfunction.
By
Life Inside August 26, 2021
My Uncle Died the Day He Was Released From Jail. I’m Still Trying to Understand Why.
“Sudden cardiac death,” is the cause listed on my uncle Bryan’s death certificate. But it didn’t feel sudden at all — not when you factor in his underlying mental and physical health problems, years of poor prison medical care and the fact that he caught COVID-19 in his Arizona jail.
By
Raymond Riles, right, with Ronald O’Bryan at the Ellis Unit in Huntsville, Texas, in 1979. In that era, incarcerated people on death row could go to the exercise yard for three 90-minute periods a week.
Death Sentences February 4, 2021
He’s Too Mentally Ill to Execute. Why Is He Still on Death Row After 45 Years?
Raymond Riles has been on death row longer than anyone in America. He’s one of many who have languished there for decades with severe mental illnesses.
By and
Case in Point June 6, 2019
Mentally Ill and Languishing in Jail
A Pennsylvania case illustrates a national problem: People with psychiatric illnesses often remain incarcerated while they wait for a hospital bed.
By , Leila Miller and
Feature November 27, 2018
Why Is Karl Taylor Dead?
Our prisons are our mental wards. One fatal case in New York shows where that can lead.
By
Feature November 21, 2018
Treatment Denied: The Mental Health Crisis in Federal Prisons
The Bureau of Prisons set higher standards for psychiatric care. But instead of helping more inmates, the agency dropped thousands from its caseload, data shows.
By and Taylor Elizabeth Eldridge
At the ADX Florence supermax prison in Colorado, the Department of Justice’s inspector general found mentally ill inmates held in solitary confinement despite a 2014 change in policy meant to improve their care.
News July 12, 2017
Federal Watchdog Finds Mentally Ill Are Stuck in Solitary
A new report contradicts a claim from the Bureau of Prisons.
By
A woman diagnosed with bipolar disorder sings “Mary Had a Little Lamb” to herself in her cell in the women’s acute mental health unit of the Bexar County Jail in San Antonio.
News June 22, 2017
The Mental Health Crisis Facing Women in Prison
A new study shows a striking disparity between incarcerated men and women.
By
The U.S. Penitentiary at Lewisburg in Pennsylvania in 2010.
News June 12, 2017
Where Crossword Puzzles Count as Counseling
A new lawsuit alleges poor care for mentally ill inmates at one of the highest security prisons in the country.
By
Life Inside April 27, 2017
I Escaped My Manic Demons, but My Clients Usually Can’t
A social worker struggles to keep the mentally ill poor out of jail.
By Kristen Anderson
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